Sins of Omission

Have you ever felt a tugging at your heart, and ignored it?

Perhaps you heard God whispering in your ear, "speak to that person" or "join that group" or "stand up for the right." If you've always heeded that call, then congratulations. If you're a sinner like most of us, then you've probably failed at this more than once.

Last week my family was involved in a car accident. It was an amazing experience—a Dodge pickup slammed into a semi truck ahead of us, spraying an explosion of glass and metal through the air, then it bounced off our back fender leaving little more than a crease. There were six of us in the Suburban, and we were gasping with relief, praising God that no one got so much as a scratch. The truck was a mangled wreck, but the driver walked out unhurt.

The best skaters have wet bottoms.

Me + Sports = Disaster in the Making. Let's just say that I'm not the most athletic person you've ever met. However, in my personal challenge to make my life more of a daring adventure and add some zest to the everyday, I recently took the opportunity to go ice skating with some friends. 

Lesson #1 of a life with wings: take every opportunity, even if—no, especially when—it means going outside your comfort zone.  

Untitled, a photo by brklynn on Flickr.

We went to an small outdoor rink in downtown Bentonville, not far from the starry glow of Christmas lights on the city square. We strapped on our bright blue skates and got out on the ice amid dozens of other people making the most of the winter night. My friends are far more accomplished than I, so while I clumped along trying hard not to slip, they were gliding across the rink (as the hours went on and I was invigorated with a s'more latte from the coffee shop, I did get to feeling more confident).

Many of the skaters were little kids, but there were also a few people with enviable skill. They swished around and around with their hands in their pockets, twirling a little here, making a lap going backwards...it was fun to watch but also a little disheartening.  

I've gone ice skating twice in the last 6 or so years, and I have yet to fall down. I might be proud of that—it shows that I'm not a complete lost cause—but on the other hand I realized something that night that applies far beyond the world of ice skating. 

Some of the best ice skaters out there were sporting wet spots on the backs of their jeans.   

My Bucket List In Progress

A couple months ago I wrote a post about bucket lists, where I wrote about lifelong goals, living to the fullest, the magic of thinking big, etc. Well, I have since created a list of my own. 

In case you're not familiar with Heritage Makers, it's an awesome online program that gives you the ability to create gorgeous custom storybooks, calendars, canvas prints, greeting cards, invitations, and even personalized playing cards (watch the video introduction here). I used HM to create a 14x11 poster of my bucket list (see the image above) to frame and hang on the wall above my bed as a reminder of my goals.

I call this my "Bucket List in Progress" because it is by no means a concrete thing. I've listed such goals as "write a textbook" and "own a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel" that I may not want to do someday for a myriad of reasons. But this is an outline, a rough sketch, something to aim for. I intend to alter it every few years to accommodate new goals and cross out the ones I've already accomplished, honing it to a razor-sharp edge of intention. 

So without further ado I present to you my current bucket list, with goals listed in no particular order: 

The old streets of Saltaire Village, a photo by Paul Stevenson on Flickr.

1.       Keep it simple

2.       Stay under 130 lbs.

3.       Deep relationships

4.       Create a self-study program for lifelong learning

5.       Find or create work that I love

6.       Live in England

7.       Make a friend in every European country

8.       Fall in love

9.       Discover my reasons for living

10.   Work for myself

11.   Get good at tennis

12.   Ride a horse “in the rough”

Les Miserables West End, a photo by mart wegman on Flickr.

13.   Learn another language

14.   See a show on Broadway/the West End

15.   Learn to dance

Grayson.., a photo by Bruce Tuten on Flickr.

16.   Scuba dive in a coral reef

17.   Sleep in a British castle

18.   Own a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

19.   Spread the Gospel

20.   Always tithe at least 10%

21.   Become influential in a godly ministry

It is Finished, a photo by abcdz2000 on Flickr.

22.   See the Northern Lights

23.   Visit

•        The British Museum

•        The Uffizi Gallery

•        The Smithsonian

•        The Louvre

24.   Live at least six months in a foreign country

25.   Tour New England

26.   Live in my “dream cottage” (a white cottage on a New England beach)

27.   Create a lovely garden

cutting loose, a photo by SqueakyMarmot on Flickr.

28.   Become a semi-professional photographer

29.   Become a connoisseur

30.   Read the complete works of Shakespeare

31.   Discover my strengths, weaknesses, passions, and gifts

32.   Never take on a lifestyle of debt

33.   Be a major influence in a child’s life

34.   Prison ministry

35.   Become an expert

36.   Win a prestigious blog award

37.   Write a textbook or study guide

Flags!, a photo by Paul Kehrer on Flickr.

38.   Be a New York Times bestselling author

39.   Go to a Green Bay Packer Game

40.   Make mistakes

41.   Learn to not take offense

And what is your personal opinion of these goals? Do you have a bucket list of your own? Are you willing to post it for the world to see?

Learning to Fail

My first "vlog post". You might think it's awful, but that just proves my point!

Lord, What Have I Done?

I don't believe all of this "end of the world on May 21" business. Jesus said that no man would know the day or hour of His second coming, and I take that quite literally.

That said, what if Jesus really did decide to come back to earth tomorrow? What if He comes back today? Or Sunday? Or in three years? It frightens me to think what He would say if I came before His throne right now. "Well done, good and faithful servant"? Somehow, I think not.

I've never really shared the Good News with anyone, which is a huge part of my reason for being alive. I've prayed for plenty of people, but it's usually muddled by distraction and half-hearted preoccupation. I often have a terrible attitude, even to those I those the most. I have a fear of witnessing, a fear of doing the wrong thing, a fear of doing the right thing. And I'm so confused.

Jesus, if you're reading this, please, please, help me get my act together. I am to be "alert and of sober mind" to be prepared for Your return, and I feel like a miserable failure. Show me Your Will and Your Way for my life, and give me the strength, courage, and wisdom to follow it.

How Far? Too Far?

As most of you know, I am a rabid Britophile. Give me practically anything British and I'll jump sky high. I especially love British books and films. I especially love great British actors. And I especially love Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson.

So imagine my surprise, my thrill, my veritable ecstasy when I learned about a movie starring both of them--and only them. Yes indeed, it's The Song of Lunch: an hour-long drama drawn almost completely from a long poem, dialog and all, and starring only two characters.

The plot is very simple: two ex-lovers reunite after 15 years for lunch at a little Italian restaurant. Their conversation starts out well, but does not go quite as planned. After all is said and done they both realize that they can never erase the past or recapture what is gone. It was a brilliant movie with truly insightful, human writing and two of the greatest actors on the screen today.

But I cannot give this film my wholehearted approbation. It is uncomfortably sensual and I had to fast-forward through some rather revealing parts. But I was enjoying it so much that even after one or two "indiscreet" parts I just had to watch it to the end.

Which brings me to the subject of this post.

Mistakes

This is one of those conversational blog posts that's meant to generate a little discussion in the comment section. Tell me what ya think.

I believe that mistakes are a bad thing. this might seem like a rather normal viewpoint at first, but then you start to listen to other people and hear them saying something else. "There are no mistakes, just learning experiences", "Wisdom is learning from your mistakes", "A man's errors are his portals of discovery", "Only people who try make mistakes". 


So what exactly are these people saying?


Sure, making a mistake isn't the end of the world. Aristotle defined a mistake as "injury in transactions between man and man...done in ignorance...when the person acted on, the act, the instrument, or the end that will be attained is other than the agent supposed." It's a pardonable offense, and usually not too big of a deal. You aren't really responsible for the action.


Learning from your own mistakes is a very smart thing to do. If you burn yourself once on a hot stove it's a good idea to not touch the hot stove again. That is how small children learn to function in the world around them. When people around us fall into error, whether they have a good excuse or not, it is so easy to throw out an insipid platitude and call it good. As Oscar Wilde says, "Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes."


But we are trying to be adults, aren't we? Adults don't just learn from their own mistakes, they learn from the mistakes of others. That is a much better definition of wisdom, to my mind. Sure, making errors has lead to some great discoveries, and maybe it has helped some people to know themselves better or led them to wonderful places. But danger lies in lackadaisically meandering through life not paying attention to your actions, or blundering through at top speed and not concerning yourself with the consequences. 


It is so important that we try to be the best we can be. Don't beat yourself up over the past, but never assume that whatever you do, it's bound to turn up all right in the end. Look around you, see what's going wrong in everyone else's life and try to act in a contrary manner, hopefully avoiding much of the pain of this world. There is little glory in falling flat on your face right after seeing someone in front of you trip over the same stumbling block. Don't think that you have to "learn it for yourself" and "make your own mistakes." It only leads to unnecessary heartbreak.


Your thoughts? 

72/365 - And Your Point Is?, originally uploaded by helgasms!.